Apocalypse

Ok so we nearly have all of the character sheets / characters ready to roll and we are just waiting on the final two party members to see if they will be joining us or not and then we are ready to roll! I’m excited. :D

The memory of the beginning has been lost to time. It is thought that only the Archangels really know what happened as the universe was formed, but if they do know, they aren’t telling anybody. So let’s talk about what we do know instead.

There are seven main realms that govern the rules of the universe. These realms are:

Aether – The Realm of Forces and PrimeArcadia – The Realm of Fate and TimeThe Shadowlands – The Realm of Death and MatterPandemonium – The Realm of Mind and SpaceThe Umbra – The Realm of Life and SpiritThe Abyss – The Realm without rulesand Earth – The Anchor

Each of these realms is home to beings who govern over their aspect of the universe. The Umbra for example, concerns itself with nature and the spirits of natural things, whereas Aether concerns itself with the building blocks of the universe and the power contained within.

In their natural state, the beings from these realms are somewhat mindless. They follow the orders of their superiors and never stop to think about the big questions “Who am I? Why am I here? Is there a point to all of this? What does it all mean?”

Humanity, however, loves thinking about the big questions. We love thinking about it so much that these questions have changed the way in which humanity understands itself and the world around it. Humanity is not powerful when compared with say, an angelic being, but humanity as a whole is capable of understanding and defining almost anything that we put our minds to. Unfortunately this power of understanding is not always a good thing. The same organ that gave us the music of Bach is the same organ that wages wars and kills others of a differing opinion or appearance.

In the world in which this game takes place, humanity has the most incredible gift – the ability to magically shape the world according to personal belief. This gift is not very common, but it does not need to be to have a profound impact on the universe at large.

It is unknown as to if it was all a part of some “plan” for humanity to receive this level of power, but as to if it was wise for them to receive it is something that sparked a huge debate within the realms. It caused the realm-dwellers to wake up from their servitude and they began to form opinions. Some were jealous, others offended, but ultimately most were divided.

These opinions were largely influenced by Pandemonium – The Realm of Mind and Space, who had the closest link to humanity. The purpose of Pandemonium was to inspire humanity into achieving greater things (and thus making the Anchor realm a greater place) and to take any ideas that humanity generated to the realm that governs over that sort of thing. While this worked for a very long time during humanities infancy, there came a tipping point where the ideas that started to appear in Pandemonium were not all peaceful.

The new ideas that humanity started coming up with caused a fundamental shift in the Realm of Mind and Space, to such an extent that in the insubstantial darkness a terrible force grew. The larger it grew, the more fractured and angry the inhabitants of the other realms became. Strange new emotions found their way to the realm-dwellers, but none was as great as Pride in it’s ability to corrupt.

The War in Heaven began when a being named Ahrimal foresaw a disaster in the future – a disaster which the powers-that-be had either directly orchestrated or would allow to happen. The angels debated whether or not to act against their creator in order to prevent this disaster; many argued that it would be safer to do nothing, because their action could potentially be the cause of the disaster. The angel Lucifer was the first to make a conclusive decision in favour of rebellion, and he became the leader of the rebel angels.

So it came to pass that Lucifer took the angels of Aether and waged a bloody war against his maker, reality and the realms. A great many beings from around the metaverse joined him on his bloody crusade and an age known as The War of Wrath began. Angel fought against angel, a deep corruption found its way into the Umbral realm and sent many of the inhabitants mad with rage, the Shadowlanders watched the ranks of the dead grow each day and Arcadia lost it’s mind as each and every rule that existed was broken and cast aside.

Yet in the darkness, something grew. When it awoke, the great beast Malfeas destroyed the realm that had spawned it (The Realm of Mind and Space), destroying any pure thought, muse or representation of a great idea that it could find. Yet it’s hunger did not subside, even after it had massacred the realm, and it turned it’s attention to the other realms out there in the metaverse.

The Angels of Aether, the Celestines of the Umbra and the High Fates of Arcadia formed an alliance to stop the beast. The rebellious realms came to their senses for just long enough to watch as the Heart of Aether, the font of all creative energy itself, was used to strike Malfeas down. Defeated, Malfeas fell down through the Realm of Mind and space and in a last act of defiance, turned himself to rock so his presence would always remain within reality.

You were one of the realm dwellers who actively rebelled, became jealous, in a fit of madness blamed humanity for the unfortunate events that happened as corruption spread, were influenced too much by the the dark psyche of humanity, the growing darkness of Malfeas or by the pain of all the terrible things that happened when the realms shattered and the war was waged. As a punishment for abandoning your duties, causing untold atrocities upon humanity, turning against your own kind and even daring to think on matters that are of no concern to you, the powers that be flung you into the destroyed Realm of Mind and Space, sealed the door and left you to rot in the belly of a dead, world eating anti-god.

The force of Destiny, one of the great forces of the universe objected to your treatment for reasons that only it knows, and plunged the world into darkness – making it almost impossible for the other great forces of reality to repair the damage that had been done.

Now however, back doors have been found out of Pandemonium. For some, the old madness returns, the old wounds start bleeding anew and the dogs of war snap and bite as they rail against their chains. For others, clarity has descended – now is the time to find out the answers to all of the questions, or perhaps to repair the damage that you helped to bring about.